From: Ketharaman Swaminathan [s.ketharaman@gtm360.com]
Sent: Monday, 21 September 2020 2:12 PM
To: ‘punemirror.feedback@gmail.com’
Cc: ‘Supriya.Dedgaonkar@timesgroup.com’
Subject: Legal Protection Is The Last Thing That Cash-Strapped Startups Should Worry About
Dear Editor of Pune Mirror:
This has reference to the article entitled “City lawyer will be doling out…start businesses” published in today’s Pune Mirror.
A founder – like the Aditya Parkhi person mentioned in the article – who starts an AI project when he can’t even afford Rs. 7,000 is seriously misguided.
From where is he going to get money for development and marketing?
As successful entrepreneurs know, these are the high priority areas for any IP-driven startup. Without them, there is no offering and no market acceptance. Nobody is going to bother to copy anything from the startup. Patent / trademark are pointless.
Also, very few people seem to appreciate that patent / trademark does not prevent others from copying, just gives the founder the right to file a lawsuit if and when a copycat emerges.
As an angel investor who runs a marketing solutions firm, my pro bono guidance to these cash-strapped founders is to get into pure services. They can start earning money from the very first month. There is no need to spend money on marketing for the first year or two. Now that Work from Home has gone mainstream on the back of the pandemic outbreak, there is no need to spend money even on office space. Certainly, there is no need for legal protection of IP – because there’s no IP to protect.
Ketharaman Swaminathan
s.ketharaman@gtm360.com
Pune, INDIA